U.N. Sets Up War Crimes Tribunal in Rwanda Killings
The Security Council voted Tuesday to set up an international tribunal for genocide in Rwanda, despite objections from the new Rwandan government that the court won’t be able to sentence to death those found guilty.
In Geneva, U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said he would propose sending troops to restore order in refugee camps on the Zaire border and try to persuade the more than 1 million Rwandans living there to return home.
The Rwandan government voted against the tribunal because the resolution set life imprisonment as the maximum sentence, reflecting the Security Council’s discomfort with capital punishment. Rwanda’s ambassador to the Security Council, Manzi Bakuramutsa, said the lack of a death penalty meant the tribunal “would only appease the conscience of the international community, rather than respond to the expectations of the Rwandan people.”
Without Rwanda’s cooperation, U.N. officials said, it would be difficult to convict those responsible for the ethnic and political slaughter that left about half a million dead in the Central African nation.
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